With an ongoing struggle to collect and harness water supplies to irrigate their fields in arid climates, eastern civilisations turned to terracing in order to utilise land on hills and mountainsides. Narrow fields, formed as steps in the sloping land, allowed hillsides to be farmed with little risk of soil erosion. Each step, or field, was irrigated by a network of canals. In Mesopotamia, terraced fields were irrigated by a network of 'shadufs' which were placed on each step. This simple ancient water-lifting device was made up of a large beam, supporting a rope and bucket, with a counter weight at the opposite end.
